Wind riders

Or so it seemed.

In fact, I got 2 feet off the water. A kid on a beach ball could have bounced higher. But the mind can play lovely tricks when plying the remote, delicate edges of this island. It is high adventure over a low carbon footprint - fairy tale chic, and very Vineyard.

"Anyone can fly a kite," says Mark Begle 36, the founder, owner, and sole instructor of Skyhigh Kiteboarding, the island's only kiteboarding school. "The idea is to learn to do it safely."

Begle hung out one of the island's unique shingles four years ago after discovering the sport in the Pacific Northwest.

"I was out windsurfing one day and suddenly this kiter flew overhead," Begle explained recently between bites on a fish sandwich in Vineyard Haven. "From then on, I was hooked." He eventually would equip himself with morsels of kiting paraphernalia salvaged from a session of dumpster diving behind a kite manufacturer. Slowly he worked his way east to the Vineyard where he now - on far safer equipment - teaches some 150 students a season.

"I have kited in places around the world. Factor in the wind and beach terrain, and I am not sure there is a better place," said Begle, a tanned man with a trim physique suggesting he has spent much time hanging upside down from a kite bar.

Kiteboarders stand on a variant of a snowboard while steering a kite 90 feet overhead. Lines lead from the kite to a control bar hooked to the rider's harness. Kiters can turn, control velocity, and jump by simply maneuvering the bar. The sport has the speed of waterskiing with a vertical component but without the internal combustion.

And it is catching on, apparently in a big way. Where there might have been 5,000 kiteboarders in North America five years ago, there are now probably 50,000, according to Rick Iossi, a South Florida resident who has kept one of the longest records of kiting safety statistics. Five North Americans died kiting last year, none of them using the newer, safer kite designs.